Parents/Guardians as Partners
St Dominic’s College recognises parents/guardians as partners. We work together so that the students can maximise their time in St Dominic’s, be it in the classroom, out on trips or at our various school events.
This section of the website dedicated to parents and guardians gives a flavour of how this is put into practice.
Parents Association
A parent association (PA)is a structure through which parents/guardians of a school can work together for the best possible education for their children. All parents/guardians of a school are involved in the parents association. However, just a small number form a committee to represent these parents/guardians. It is a well-known fact that the relationship between school and home has a huge bearing on a child’s education. Teachers can do a better job if they have the support of parents/guardians. Parents/guardians may feel more supported if they have the support of other parents/guardians. The PA is a means to help this happen.
The Education Act, 1998 lays out the role of the PA.
“A parents association shall promote the interests of the students in a school, in cooperation with the board, principal, teachers and students. “
The Education Act suggests that the PA could “…adopt a programme of activities which will promote the involvement of parents in the operation of the school, in consultation with the principal.”
The PA committee of St Dominic’s College meet approximately every six weeks during the academic year. Every year group in the school is represented by a parent/guardian. The committee comprises the Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and remaining parents/guardians. The Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer are elected at the beginning of every school year. Any parent or guardian is most welcome to become a member of the committee.
This year (2017-2018) the members of the committee are:
Andrea Dockerty (Chairperson), Zara Jakes (Secretary), Serina Irvine (Treasurer), Dora Kelly, Ada Ukwuani, Ellen Whelan, Marian Kolapo, Olivia Sweeney, Lisa Mooney, Samantha Keating and Lisa Hughes. A huge thanks is extended to the ladies who give up their valuable time to work on behalf of the school.
Fundraising
An important part of the committees’ duties include fundraising for St Dominic’s. We aim to hold three fundraisers every year. This December we ran a Christmas raffle at the annual Christmas Fair. Students from Transition Year helped out by asking some local shops for prizes for which we were very grateful. Tickets were sold before the day of the Fair and during the Fair itself. It was great success with the monies raised shared between the school and Inner City Helping Homeless which is a charity that provides help for homeless people.
March 8th and 9th saw the PA committee (with a little help from their friends) head to Iceland in Ballyfermot for two days of bag packing. In their lovely white PA t-shirts the ladies could not be missed! Debbie McAllister and her team in Iceland gave us great support. With the help of the customers in Iceland we raised €680. Some of this amazing sum will go towards maintaining the cost of keeping our Family Therapy Centre running smoothly.
Keep a lookout here for details of further fundraising.
If any parent is interested in being a part of the fundraising team but cannot commit to our regular PA committee meetings we would be delighted to have you on board.
School Trips
Parents/Guardians are most welcome to accompany students on school trips of which there are many during the school year. At present some of the PA committee are being Garda vetted so that they can assist in the running of such trips.
School Committees
Parents/Guardians can become involved in the many school committees that St Dominic’s run. We have for example the JCSP committee, the Health Promoting Schools committee, the PR committee and the TY committee. At present each of these committees have two parent representatives. This truly demonstrates ‘Parents/Guardians as Partners’.
Parent/Guardian Forums
St Dominic’s has a parent/guardian forum at 1st and 2nd year level. Each forum comprises three parents/guardians from the relevant year group. The forum meet every term to discuss what is working well in that year group. Suggestions are sought as to how to improve any aspect of school life for the students. Areas such as homework, extra-curricular activities and courses for parents are just some of the topics raised by the parents/guardians through these forums. A big thank you to our parents and guardians who give up their time to attend the forums.
As anyone who arrives at our parent/guardian section of the school website can see St Dominic’s actively promotes parents and guardians as partners in school life. See the photos below for just a snapshot of activities.
If anyone is interested in any of the above they can contact Siobhán on 0852347143 or sconnolly@stdominicsballyfermot.ie
